Austin City Limits

I decided to use the most cliche title for this post because being creative is hard, and I'm tired right now. Get off my back.

But in all reality, the Austin city limits are a very important boundary. If I were to ask you to think of the word Texas, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Old westerns, cowboys, wide open land and skies, but also conservative values, Southern attitudes, not the most progressive state in the union. This is at least what I think of. Not the most friendly place for someone like me. 

So when it was announced that the Gophers were going to the NCAA tournament in Austin, TX, I was excited for the warmth and travel, not so excited for Texas. After our recent trip to Houston, I did not have high expectations for this trip. Austin proved me wrong in about 4 hours.

The first thing that I loved was the warmth. We left a Minneapolis shivering in the 9 degree air. When we landed, it was a balmy 70 degrees. But beyond the obvious, once we crossed the city limits into Austin, we stepped into a world completely unlike the rest of Texas.

Minneapolis from the plane.

Austin is one of the fastest growing cities in Texas, and they are on the forefront of urban planning. Sprawl is a bad word in Austin. We never left downtown, yet we saw Austin. Downtown, bounded on the south by Ladybird Lake (it's a river--definitely not Minnesota) and to the north by the capitol building and the University of Texas at Austin campus was beautiful. It was obvious that rather than throwing all their money into the suburbs, residents of Austin were enthusiastic about their city center.

Congress Ave, the main N-S street in downtown, ends at the capitol, flanked with shops, restaurants, and wide sidewalks for pedestrians. This street made me fall in love with Austin,, even though I had only been there for a couple hours. It had the luxury of being a very wide street. 4 lanes of traffic still left room for diagonal parking and wide sidewalks perfect for strolling. But the area wasn't dominated by parking. They selectively places curb cuts for parking, leaving wide swaths for trees, bike parking, tables in front of cafes, even public artwork. It was a dynamic environment with people walking, sitting, eating and talking, parking bikes, playing music, everything. It was not simple a corridor to get from car to store. It was a place to hang out, to see and be seen. I'm sure we were seen by everyone there, with our pasty skin seeing sunlight for the first time since October. While everyone else there was in jackets (it had dropped into the lower 60s), we were in shorts and tshirts. Such a wonderful warmth!

Congress Ave looking toward the capitol.

Interesting statue

Parklet!

Congress Ave from the capitol.

Congress Ave ended with the state capitol grounds. It was a large and beautifully  laid out park space, with the capitol perched on top of a hill. It was everything that my two state capitols aren't, it had the prominent location of St. Paul with the proximity to downtown of Topeka. It was a very popular space, a large public park in the center of the city. The building itself was gorgeous, and trying to name the style left me a bit dazed. Like most American architecture, it took bits and pieces from different styles: baroque facade, French renaissance wings, etc.

Texas State Capitol grounds

Texas State Capitol

Off of Congress Ave on 6th Street is my favorite part of Austin. It is one of the most dynamic and wonderful bar districts I have ever been to. They block the street off after a certain time and the entirety of 5 blocks becomes a pedestrian's paradise. All the bars are open to the street; windows, doors, letting the fresh warm air in. By my estimate, a quarter of all bars have rooftops and at least half had life music. What an amazing place to spend an evening out. All of this in the shadows of the skyscrapers that dot the Austin skyline. If you only have 4 hours in Austin, go to 6th Street.

I've been rambling on, so I will finish up a quick rundown of what we did/why I love Austin. Next door to our hotel was Austin Food Park, a piece of empty land transformed into a food truck paradise. Excellent breakfast tacos. The University of Texas campus was gorgeous. Since it is warmer, campus was in full bloom. The one word I thought of to describe it is luscious. Plantings, trees, shrubs, flowers everywhere! And their stadium is HUGE. (We got a tour of it and within the first 20 seconds, the tour guide bragged about it being the 4th largest in the country). We got reservations at the Salt Lick BBQ. Let's just say I've eaten that much meat in one sitting in my life. Delicious! Finally, the reason we were there. The NCAA tournament was one of the best memories I've ever had. It is definitely a once in a lifetime memory. You can see the pictures and just search Gophers NCAA in the Google machine if you want to see how they did.

Austin Food Park

DNR Texas Memorial Stadium

Salt Like BBQ

That's all for Austin. My conclusion: LOVE IT. If you ever get the chance to go there, GO. Experience a city unlike any other in Texas, a city that embraces progressive values, one that threatened to succeed from Texas should Texas succeed from the union. Austin is a city of it's own. It's a place where you can sit outside, yell a song for the band to play, and dance to the song they play (which is not even close to the one called). The people share their life stories with you, and welcome you into their hometown without even having met you. And you can definitely tell, feel even, when you cross the Austin city limits.